Assistant Architect Chapter 5

Translator: Blues

Editor: Shem
Gu Xiao was the first one to step out. Zhang Siyi could not help wiping the sweat on his forehead, his feelings this morning till now was just like riding a roller coaster.

But anyway, he was still floating on a cloud nine…

The personnel department then came to take him to familiarize with the company’s internal environment—an all gla.s.s-separated discussion room and conference room, to the information reading area comparable to mini-library, to the relaxing atmosphere of dining and refreshment area, and even a few rest rooms that had beds! He had to say, “Boundless” environment was really great beyond imagination!

Zhang Siyi giggled all the way, thinking that he was already a member of the firm. From now on, he would be able to enjoy these resources unconditionally, the feeling of sense of belonging and happiness arose spontaneously.

“Coffee machines in refreshment area offer unlimited coffee. There are free biscuits, cookies, bread and milk. At noon, the company provides meal services, free meals within thirty yuan worth or you can just choose to bring your own lunch. Afterall, dining area has refrigerators, microwaves, ovens and other equipments… … ”

Miss w.a.n.g carefully explained to him the welfare of the firm: “In accordance with the company’s basic rules and regulations, we require employees to go to work at 9 am in the morning until 6 pm in the evening. Lunch time is from 12:30 pm to 1:30."

Zhang Siyi nodded. So it turned out to be nine to six, but in the middle had an hour lunch break. Counting it up, it was also an eight-hour working system. Perfect for him.

“However,” Miss w.a.n.g changed the topic, shrugging her shoulders, “the design department is a special case, it is also possible to not comply with the time attendance in special circ.u.mstances…… In short, the company 24 hours a day supply of water heating, usually through the fingerprint lock will be able to enter.”

Zhang Siyi was listening the whole time, half understanding it and let out an “ah” sound. Then followed Miss w.a.n.g to set the fingerprint, he was taken to the design department—also to the large open s.p.a.ce he had seen through the gla.s.s part.i.tion when he just stepped out of the elevator.

There were already several young people snooping in curiosity, Zhang Siyi smiled at them.

Walking through the aisle at the side of the table, three people were around discussing the program. A leading female designer saw Miss w.a.n.g with Zhang Siyi approaching, she leaned her head: “Yo, new?” She wore a black and white OL business dress, neat bangs, wearing a pair of black-rimmed gla.s.ses, looking somewhat older, but had a good temperament.

“This is Zhang Siyi, a graduate in the UK’s Department of Architecture C. The a.s.sistant architect that Director Gu just recruited." Miss w.a.n.g also pointed to the woman and said, "This is Engineer Tong, another leading designer in the design department.”

……Child Labor? How did anyone call this name? Zhang Siyi thought he heard it wrong.

Engineer Tong shook hands with him and praised: "Engineer Gu has always been had a good vision, welcome to join the Boundless."

Zhang Siyi: “Thank you." What the h.e.l.l is Forbidden City? (= _ =)

The two young people sitting on the side also smiled at Zhang Siyi: "Welcome."

Engineer Tong patted his hand, and to those two people, she said: "All right guys, give me a shot, there's another one. If you don’t work harder, the next quarter’s bonus will go into someone else’s pocket."

Two young people: “…”

Zhang Siyi: “..….” Such a good side, he was not sick of anything! TAT (crying emoji)

Finally, Miss w.a.n.g arranged a working place for him, it was an empty table near the corner. Sitting on the left was an individual young man, on the right was a walkway, behind was a row of gla.s.s cubicles, Zhang Siyi was still too late to look closely. He listened to what Miss w.a.n.g was saying: “Xiao Zhu, this is the new Zhang Siyi, he'll sit next to you, you help take care of him."

The young man who was pretending to fiddle on the company's model in his computer, heard what was said, he immediately turned around and let out a silly laugh, "Okay."

Miss w.a.n.g looked at her watch: "It is almost lunch time, go eat first, Xiao Zhang. Then come to me to do formalities."

Zhang Siyi said thank you, Miss w.a.n.g left after that.

“Hey, I'm Zhu Hongzhen, nickname pig.” The young man introduced himself again.

Zhang Siyi just shook his hand and sat down, a girl facing him also slid the swivel chair to come over: "h.e.l.lo~"

"This is Bi Lele, just call her Lele." Pig took the initiative to introduce, but also pointed to the youth beside Bi Lele who was drawing and said, “that is Yuan Zhicheng.” The said person looked up, smiled shyly at Zhang Siyi then greeted him.

"Hi~" Zhang Siyi greeted, he saw too many people in the morning, he was a little dazed.

Bi Lele smiled and looked at Zhang Siyi: “Just a moment ago, a group receptionist in the company also said there is a young handsome guy who came for the interview. We are all dead curious. You're really handsome ah! Welcome, welcome!

Zhang Siyi excitedly said: "Thanks, thanks, I feel like I found a group. In the future please take care of me ah!"

Bi Lele was amused by him. All of them were young people and were about the same age. Soon after they introduced to each other, they became familiar.

Zhang Siyi also learned some circ.u.mstances from the two of them. The original “Boundless” design department together was a total of less than 50 people, which the ten of them specialized in structure, HVAC technology-related engineers, and have less than 10 professional landscapes and interior designers. The remaining more than 30 people were doing architectural design, these thirty people also divided into three groups, each group has its own head, Zhang Siyi's group was in the hand of Gu Xiao.

"Our boss never recruited useless people, it seems you also have some talent." Zhu Hongzheng’s boss was Gu Xiao.

"Wouldn't dare," Zhang Siyi was somewhat lacking confidence, "I just graduated, it's unlikely."

"You are the only foreign student in our group. I thought we were not expecting turtles." Bi Lele said.

(T/N: slang for returnees)

"You are all graduated from the local universities?" Zhang Siyi asked.

"I'm from Tongji, Lele was from Southeast University. That Yuan Zhicheng lives in Dacheng, he is from China Academy of Fine Arts.” Zhu Hongzhen pointed a few, basically all were famous elite schools.

Zhang Siyi felt that he was surrounded by a group of top students. If it was back to high school, this group of people could kill him in seconds. TAT

"Which school is Gu Xiao graduated?" Zhang Siyi was curious, he whispered, "How old is he? He looks so young.”

“T big ah,” Bi Lele gave the answer from the other side with a look of wors.h.i.+p and said, “He is a master. After graduating first, he worked in the X Design Inst.i.tute. I have a cla.s.smate who worked with him during interns.h.i.+p in X Design Inst.i.tute, she gave me a lot of stuff (gossip). It is said that when Gu Xiao was studying he was an idol, had good grades too, he got a lot of awards for architectural designing compet.i.tions during his college years, ‘Green Building’ and ‘Rivit Cup’ are the first. After graduation, he didn't go abroad, he directly went into the X inst.i.tute. He is a man of the G.o.ds, there were a lot of girls chasing him and last year he worked for two years. Then directly one time pa.s.sed the nine-gate exam to take a Yi Zhu. Our director scooped him out to come to ‘Boundless’ to act as design director……"

Zhang Siyi was dumbfounded. This man was so d.a.m.n awesome, his life was just plain sailing!

Bi Lele counted with her fingers: “I reckon, he is at most 28 years old."

Zhu Hongzhen pursed his lips and nodded: "Our boss is really G.o.d’s existence!"

Bi Lele looked around in a circle then gathered over to whisper: “I am telling you, I heard that the real reason for Gu Xiao to come over to "Boundless", there was a female architect eight years older than him in the X inst.i.tute pursuing him crazily, he couldn't carry it so he hid here."

Zhang Siyi: "……."

Zhu Hongzhen: “……"

Zhang Siyi: “Cough, words run around far. Then what, I heard that there are a lot of foreign students in "Boundless", how am I the only one in this group?"

"That is sister Tong's group," Zhu Hongzhen pointed to that direction and said, "She is a Ph.D in architecture from TU Delft, almost all the people in her group are foreign students. There are two foreigners, one from Spain, one from Bulgaria."

It turned out that the two young men who had just greeted him were probably from Tong Gong's group. Speaking of Tong Gong's group, Zhang Siyi wanted to laugh a bit. He asked: “How could someone called such a strange name such as ‘Child Labor’?”

Zhu Hongzhen mouth twitched: “Well, you might be wrong cause it is not her name.”

Zhang Siyi: "Ah?"

Zhu Hongzhen provided the freshman Zhang Siyi, a popular science in the workplace: “Her name is Tong He Yi, ‘Gong is the abbreviation of Gong Cheng s.h.i.+ (construction engineer), the most commonly used term in our industry. So you don’t have to be surprised if someone called you 'Engineer Zhang' later."

Zhang, Engineer Zhang, pfft…

Zhang Siyi endured laughing and said: "I gained a new knowledge. No wonder, I heard her said ‘Forbidden City ', so it was actually Director Gu."

(T/N: He actually said 涨姿势 (Zhang Zi s.h.i.+), it's an internet slang for when someone feels that he has learned something.)

Zhu Hongzhen: “Actually, our boss doesn't like others calling him director. This t.i.tle was added to him after the president scoop him out to come here, you better follow us calling him boss or call him brother Gu."

"I see,” Zhang Siyi looked around and asked, “Where is his office?"

Zhu Hongzhen pointed behind him: "It is right behind you.”

“……” Zhang Siyi looked back, and sure enough, he saw on the gla.s.s door behind him was Gu Xiao's name card! He turned his neck back and concluded, “It seems this position is a bit dangerous for me.”

Zhu Hongzheng, with a solemn look, nodded: "Yes, if you get caught slacking at work by the boss, the end is miserable."

Zhang Siyi: “No way? What about a little time on the internet?”

“It depends on what you are surfing for. Of course, it does not matter if you look up for formation, but anything else …” Zhu Hongzheng did not say anything, but Zhang Siyi felt a chill through the tone of his suggestion.

“I feel the boss……” Zhang Siyi thought this call was a bit strange, he changed it and said, “Brother Gu seems very good."

Zhu Hongzhen looked at him strangely: “Where did you get this illusion?”

“Isn't it?” He was spilled with coffee but did not get angry, and today Gu Xiao also recruited him… Well, maybe the character was a little strange, such as like joking in a serious tone.

“Boss, this man is truly very awesome, but seriously, working under his hands is not a wonderful experience,” Zhu Hong with a bitter face said, “because he will ask you with G.o.d’s guidelines, make you depressed…… Anyway, I'll give you a head up in advance, you will understand after a while that he doesn't look like that on the surface…uhm… gentle."

Yuan Zhicheng who had not spoken for a while suddenly looked up to Zhang Siyi after hearing it. His eyes were melancholy and his smile was gloomy: “Welcome to hard-pressed group A.”

Zhang Siyi: "……."

Just a moment ago, the love struck Bi Lele when her colleagues ridicule Gu Xiao, actually shut up and went silent, with a look of “pain and happiness”……sighed.

Lunch time, Zhu Hongzhen's group all have set of company's lunch, so Zhang Siyi had to go downstairs to a fast food restaurant at their tips.

Because it was located in the business center, a lot of restaurants were nearby. But the grades and prices were generally high, except for 7-11, Rosen and other convenience stores and mostly decent restaurants.

Just found a new job, Zhang Siyi wanted to reward himself. He refused to go to the convenience store for lunch, so he chose a j.a.panese restaurant to eat.

There were many people eating lunch, Zhang Siyi was at the line up group outside for a while. In the meantime, he finally could give his mates good news.

In just two hours, after Zhang Siyi made two expressions of crying, the chat records in the WeChat discussion group were swiped by hundreds.

At first, the students were still anxious to ask him the specific situation, Fu Xinhui even gloat over there. Then saw him not saying a word, everyone started to comfort him. Furthermore they were worried that he took things too hard, enlightened for a long time, but soon the topic was turned away. When Zhang Siyi opened his phone, his cla.s.smates were eagerly discussing the future development of China’s construction industry in the group.

He retreated with a look of restraint, clicked to open Fu Xinhui's single avatar and found that there were several unread messages.

Fu Xinhui: “What's up? Are you hurt?”

Fu Xinhui: "What about the man? Don't commit suicide, okay?"

Fu Xinhui: “Well, I shouldn't have laughed at you in the group. Don't be sad, come back, I'll invite you to have dinner!”

Fu Xinhui: “If you don't have a job, then it's not going to happen.”

Fu Xinhui: “At worst, if you have no money, I'll just raise you first~”

Zhang Siyi's head was full of black lines, he replied: “You get lost, crow's beak! I was recruited!”

After that, he went back to the discussion group and typed a sentence: "I was recruited hahahaha!!!"

The author has something to say: [note]

TU Delft: Delft University of Technology

Green Architecture Design Compet.i.tion, Rivit Cup: Domestic College Students Architecture Design Compet.i.tion

Continue to persevere in seeking flowers ~~~~(≧▽≦)/~

The literal English translation of 童工 (Tong Gong) is child labor. 顾工 Gù Gōng – Engineer Gu. The pinyin for 顾工 has an identical sound as the pinyin of Forbidden City 故宫 (Gùgōng) HVAC – Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning. The technology of indoor and vehicular environmental comfort. Crow's beak – a person who makes an inauspicious remark

Blues: Oops, our MC didn’t want to call Gu Xiao as boss, instead he wants to call him brother. I think it’s a step closer, Hehehe.

Shem: *pokepokepoke* I am more bothered about Fu Xinhui. Are you sure he’s not gay? (≖_≖ )

Blues: hahahahaha